Vachellia farnesiana

Vachellia farnesiana is a deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub or small tree of the Fabaceae family growing 2-8 m tall with a rounded, often multi-stemmed crown and slender zigzag branchlets armed with paired straight white stipular spines 1-3 cm long at each node. Bark is grey to reddish-brown, smooth at first and becoming finely fissured with age. Leaves are alternate, bipinnate, 2-8 cm long with two to eight pairs of pinnae each bearing ten to twenty pairs of small oblong leaflets 2-7 mm long that are glabrous and dark glossy green. Inflorescences are dense globose heads 1-1.5 cm across, intensely fragrant, bright golden-yellow and borne on slender peduncles in axillary clusters of one to several. Individual flowers are minute with numerous protruding yellow stamens that give the head a powderpuff aspect. Pods are stout, cylindrical to slightly compressed, 4-9 cm long, dark purplish-brown to black at maturity, indehiscent and contain several hard ellipsoid seeds embedded in spongy pulp. Native to the warmer regions of the Americas and widely naturalised through the tropics and subtropics.